and be able to focus on other thingslike each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. cheryl: hello, everybody, i'm cheryl casone and for liz claman. it is the last hour of trading and the "countdown to the closing bell" begins right now. stocks are on track for a fourth day of losses. the dow down triple digits near session lows right now. the economy is "modestly growing." that has not turned the market around. the biggest laggers on the dow, chevron, alcoa, and caterpillar. facing a broad-based selloff. across the board, we will keep our eye on those stocks for you. no surprise to see alcoa drop in

today. kicking off earnings after the bell yesterday beat estimates but cut global demand, that outlook anyway and that stock is suffering. yum much better after his report, shares are rallying this morning. apple flipping two days of losses, in green territory. shares are up as well expecting a smaller version of the popular ipad coming next week. of course we will be covering it for you on fox business. traders on the new york stock exchange, cme group and the nymex. not even sure what to call this report today out of the fed. >> neutral and unexciting, that is what we got. the facts and the data we're getting, the market trending based upon third-quarter

earnings pretty much telegraphed into the market. quite interesting to me how we drifted lower since september 13 when they came out, and we continued to trend downward. what we are seeing is there is now the market reversed from where we used to trade, now we're looking at fundamental. the fundamentals in the third quarter are not going to be too pleasant in the industrial sector as we saw from alcoa and more importantly last night, a very interesting report. keep an eye on the industrials the next two weeks. cheryl: i want to stay on this in particular with the effect on the s&p. kevin at the cme. look at the s&p, a pop in a month of september, but still a lot of concern we are going to trend down.

>> heading into the q3 earnings season, take a look at what corporate executives say and how they got to the fourth quarter. hitting him what he just touched on, fundamentals are not good right now. it is starting to price that in more. especially after the qe announcement. just back-and-forth trade right now. that is where we are positioned moving through much of the year unless something changes dramatically. cheryl: third quarter will be a little rough on the numbers. let's go to the nymex. i will tell you what, the energy market has been fascinating to me. in particular, the effect of what we are seeing in the middle east and the imf warning on the global economy seems to me you have two different stories, and back headlines taking the contract in two separate directions. >> cheryl, has been kind of

wild. $2.50 range, last week down $3, the next day we were up, so i would say the word of the day is range bound. i don't know if anybody really wants to take a stand here. we got to the 80s handle for a day, and we rallied and got back down again and rallied. 88-$92, those factors you talked about, but the stock market taking the lead and oil following. we might get back into that kind of a pattern because the stock market coming up with heavy most of the day but we came off near the end of the day. you have to take it one day at a time going forward. it is going to be tricky going into the election and into the new year. cheryl: a lot to watch getting closer to the election and the fiscal cliff. thanks to all of you, appreciate it. we are officially underway.

elko after the bell yesterday, the stock is selling off. investors chief equity strategist joining us for the last hour of trading. first, let's start after kicking off the earnings season. truly setting the turn for what we think will be an ugly third quarter. speak of the numbers we saw friday probably more important to weather, but getting off on the right foot with alcoa, a decent beat, guidance wasn't as bad, it could have been a worse quarter. cheryl: i think the guidance is the big problem for alcoa. it wasn't as bad as we expected. >> guidance is going to be the sticky wicket for everyone. the reality is with this election coming up and the fiscal cliff, the company managements have no motivation to go out with anything remotely constructive in terms of guidance. why do that if we get that election results and the folks

was sent to washington did not deal with the fiscal cliff? it is much better to come in with conservative guidance. cheryl: will some of the secttrs be in trouble industrials? >> we are absolutely concerned about that. if there is a problem, to be industrials, materials, export driven because he and market is going to be sluggish. cheryl: all of this must be undermined. >> thspeak of the ongoing reces. the good news is we think the sector as a whole is moving in the right direction. under the leadership this last year, still have important countries in a recession and that will not end anytime soon. cheryl: i like the outfit that you are wearing. i wanted to point your attention to that if you are not looking over to the screen on the left. there are your pockets.

talk about third-quarter. washington? >> washington is a huge concern because of the uncertainty. the polls seem to be swimming around, and ultimately the bigger question is not who gets elected, but what are the fiscal policy that emanate from that, and do they diffuse the ticking fiscal time bomb? cheryl: washington is a big issue, food inflation? we got a big warning today about the slowdown in u.s. exports of commodities. we had a horrible crop because of the drought, are you concerned about that? >> as a result of the worst drought in half a century, corn prices up 70-75%. aside from the near-term spike in nominal inflation pressures, the bigger question as we look out in the pipeline over the next couple of quarters, what is the spill over into core inflation? that is a question we don't know

the answer to. cheryl: earnings will give us some answers. don't ask if you don't want to know. he will stay with me for the rest of the hour. we have 52 minutes to go. cyber attacks are hitting banks blocking customer access and naming which banks will be targeted. find out if your bank and if anything can be done to fight it. later this hour the chairman of the athens stock exchange joins us exclusively to tell us what he calls greece an attractive market and so you should be investing right now. all the pictures coming out of the country, that is coming up. from 17 billion chips worldwide

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cheryl: our power mover of the hour is true religion. spiking today is the company received interest from potential buyers. true religion.proposals from private equity firms and some competitors. if you know the name, you know those jeans fel sell up to $360r pair. but they have been hit by falling demand.

really it should be $200, not 360, right? despite the big top, here we go, true religion down over 10% over the past year. there is the one-year chart. people make fu made fun of me sg for $100 on lulu lemon. nicole petallides on the new york stock exchange, what do you think? nicole: i like lulu lemon and true religion. they wash well. another all-time high today. a couple of key factors hitting the dow component in a good way, the fact they are preparing for the holidays and talking positively about their strategy and momentum heading into the holidays, they feel they have confidence going into the holiday season. and the fact they are trying out same day service, you order something online by noon, get it same day, that is amazing as well. and they had a good back to

school. we are anticipating an all-time high. wal-mart with some of these moves going into the holiday season taking on the other behemoth, that is amazon.com. if wal-mart is able to execute and really find a group of people who want to do same-day services, they really could hit amazon. wal-mart moving higher, while amazon is coming under pressure. cheryl: thank you very much, we will see you very soon. let's break down some of the biggest headlines. we have got peter barnes, adam shapiro, and we have dennis kneale. let's start with peter barnes on the ruling on affirmative action in college admission. what is the latest? >> just arguments in a very important case. university of texas admits about three quarter of the students in a colorblind process. is there any top 10% of their

high school class, they're automatically admitted to the university regardless of race. the other quarter are admitted in a separate process including race as one of about a dozen factors. the supreme court has allowed institutions to use race as a factor in admissions but only if the consideration is narrowly targeted, a legal term, to meet a compelling government interest in creating a diverse student body, diversity that can enrich the student body. all good stuff, right? a white students denied admission in 2008 sued the university saying it's process was not tailored narrowly enough that it created reverse discrimination denied her equal protection under the constitution. the university says the process is narrow enough and works. the questions today, they sounded to split along ideological lines. supporters worry that this more conservative court could use

this case to limit affirmative action programs not just an in education but also business and government. cheryl: peter barnes, thank you very much. adam shapiro with the banks being targeted by cyber attacks. >> we have seen increased traffic today and have experienced the management and service availability but declined additional comment at this time. yesterday capital one, today suntrust, the same group tied to islamic terrorist saying they would after jpmorgan chase and bank of america. tomorrow, regions financial. issue a statement instead we take online security seriously and are taking every measure to protect the company and our customers from regions financial, the target tomorrow. the group behind all this posting on the web that after this round of attacks they will regroup over the weekend and come up with other financial institutions to hit.

cheryl: we will be following this for consumers, for the yanks, investors, everyone. dennis kneale has the latest on the fallout from jack welch job report tweet. >> turns out the bitter cheering at jack welch question the validity came from fortune magazin"fortune"magazine and itn jack welch quit and has an op-ed bashing his bashers. accusing the obama labor departmenlabordepartment of mans numbers so fortune editor in chief weeks to the president defense. and unfortunately, a writer did a couple of nasty stories pointing out that he laid off 100,000 people in 20 years. though they have had plenty of layoffs as they can revenue 50%

in a decade. and jack welch counter punches instead in the "wall street journal" liking the beating he's taken over this to soviet russia. jack welch also come under attack from former obama economic advisor saying on al gore current tv that it is absolutely and totally ridiculous to say somehow some political people change the numbers. this is crazy stuff. oh yeah? he himself questioned the honesty of the job numbers in the bush administration in '03 in "new york times" that they have been buying people off their employment rolls i and the government has cooked the books. in a counter tweet he said jack, you completely missed cited my old report, it was about those parties in congress not administration changing numbers. you know what, i did read it, i failed to see the distinction, sir. back to you, cheryl.

cheryl: dennis, thank you very much. we now have 42 minutes to go. the debt crisis increase, athens stock exchange has plummeted from 5000 in 2007, just about 800 today. coming up next, socrates lazaridis, chairman of the athens stock exchange joins us in the studio to tell us how he is convincing investors the exchange isn't in ruins.

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that's right for you. cheryl: here's your fox business

market check. despite a down day in the market, for stock the s&p 500 are hitting record highs today. two of them are in the health care sector. shares hitting a new high. $87.13. actually down $0.05, but from the intraday action the stock got a big pop at the beginning of the session today. receiving a green signal from the european commission for the acquisition of privately held pharma company activists. shares hitting a record high today, here's the chart for you right now holding onto the gains. reporting a 10% stake in the company and department of justice dropped a seven-year criminal investigation into its financial and marketing practice at the beginning of the month. $109.40. it is holding strong throughout the session. leaders from the athens stock exchange are in new york on a mission to prove the greek market is worth investing in. despite the countries intensifying debt crisis.

ashley webster joins us now. socrates lazaridis, chairman of the athens stock exchange in a fox business exclusive interview. >> thank you very much. thank you for joining us today. let's get right into this. why should people invest in greece? we have seen the pictures, the people rising in the streets, we hear the daily exclamations of doom. this doesn't seem to be a very friendly investing environment. persuade me that it is. >> of course. first of all i must mention foreign investors and looking at the greek market, this is a signal of confidence. during this debt crisis, as you are aware, the prices and the

stock market, it has been decreased. these are investment opportunities. now the market cap to gdp is a very small figure. compared to the european numbers this six times lower than the european numbers. >> there is a real fear, alice will talk about this everyday, greece will not be will to pay back all the money it owes. it will be forced out of the euro zone, so an investment put in now will be devalued by that much, what would you say to that? >> i believe this was a distracted question, distracted discussion taken place mainly before the elections. now it is something we don't hear from a potential investors on the stock exchange.

they believe much more capitalization of the government and the ability of greece to remain in euro. would also have to mention is they don't believe this scenar scenario. neither the government nor the acquisition, for us the greeks and we see the number of investors has been increased. they have surpassed the mutuals the last five years. cheryl: in order tooget the next round of financial aid from the international creditors come you have to meet some strict austerity measures. how is that going? iis it possible given the econoy is not growing. >> you are right. austerity measures that we have up until now, we have seen these

results. during the previous decade, we have a labor cost is now important and competitive. there are other cold confidence has been reduced. but competitiveness of the economy is going up and this is giving the power to the cree gro go through those steps. ashley: the greek people on this side of the atlantic can be upset with what they're going through. is that an unfair picture of what is actually going on in greece? >> when you are declining your wealth and status come you cannot be happy. but you have to fight it and find a solution.

we are approaching the problem. ashley: lastly, socrates, you're here to promote the opportunities from what we understand there are islands for sale, an airport, many different opportunities, what kind of interest have you had so far? >> it was important because we have had the opportunity to present with the fund. what is the process? on the other hand a number of monitors with intermediate companies to help falling investors. we have had the opportunity to increase confidence with all the possibilities we have mentioned. ashley: we wish you the very best. socrates lazaridis with the

athens stock exchange, the chairman himself. good luck, we wish you the very best. >> thank you. ashley: cheryl, back to you. cheryl: ashley webster and socrates lazaridis. thank you. i now have about 30 minutes to go at this point. companies are scaling down their hiring plans even shifting full-time workers to part-time. more on that coming up after the break. plus, grabbing a stock at the start. at the ipo and riding it to profit, it can still be done. find out how when raymond james investing vice chairman joins me exclusively here on fox business.

fox business brief. the selloff on wall street continues amid growing concerns of a global economic slowdown the federal reserve's latest assessment of the u.s. economy did little to allay those concerns and blue chips looking at the biggest drop since july with stocks down 1% across the board. electronic parts distributor estimating its first quarter revenue will come in at the low end of its prior forecast. and delayed project on the hardware distribution operation blue the company also seeing a significant slowdown in sales in the americas for distribution operation. earnings season underway.

investors keeping an eye on ruby tuesday after the closing bell when the restaurant chain reported first quarter results looking for earnings per share number $0.06 on revenue of $33 billion. we continue count down to the closing bell with cheryl casone. cheryl: as the united states grapples with weak employment reports an alarming trend is developing. the health-care law and potential tax increases causing companies right now to change hiring plans. liz macdonald is here with the bottom line. great story. liz: we spoke to darden restaurants. one of the top three employers in the country. they own olive garden and red lobster. here is what they are telling fox business about the effect of hiring. they are testing four market's going through part-time workers,

i'm not full time workers and considering more part-time jobs, there's no flexibility in it at all. here is the problem and the bottom line. high cost of affordable care hitting the restaurant industry and they have half of their work force already as part time because there is a lot of turnover in the industry. 75% of part-time speaking of the shift so you are not hit with a mandate tax if you don't provide coverage to part-timers. if you are below the 30 hour work week, provide health insurance for those guys but here's the problem. we did have these planned. shea benefits plans and health reform outlawed because they did not provide the benefit level the health reform bill last for. $70 billion worth of benefits. no more to these plans. wait a second, these are great plans so the irony is these

part-timers are not getting health insurance because of the health reform law. what happened was these companies said if we want a waiver or a 1-year waiver to adjust. now that one year waiver is over. we will start moving part-timers. mcdonald's already saying $420 million in extra costs from the health reform law looking at ruby tuesday and also jack in the box. cheryl: the president of moji autos on the noon show. i don't know what we are going to do. we have to do something and trying to figure out because this could be a big hit to the bottom line. it is huge. anything washington is going to say is the right to new legislation. >> the bottom line, potential more like japan, 25% of the work force is part time. right now is only 15% are

part-timers in the work force. watch out for this. we will get back to you. [talking over each other] cheryl: we will talk to ruby tuesday's e o and ask how healthcare is impacting his hiring plans. you might find yourself eyeing the 2012 calendar with more scrutiny after facebook but fred lane is here to tell you how to spot the next big ipo and avoid the flock. raymond james's investment vice-chairman. great to talk to you. the ipo spectrum overall for 2012 you get a sort of response from most investors. why do you say we could have had some big winners. >> we look at tech i p os and the winners have outnumbered losers 3-1. cheryl: i brought up facebook.

>> that was a $15 billion ipo end gets a lot of prominence and media attention as it should. it is down 33%. the idea market is in terrible shambles. is not. actually the number of deals coming to market is up overall ipos up 34% versus last year in terms of a number of deals looking at q3 and looking at q32012 vs 2011 up 100%. i have a good memory. wasn't long ago that in 2009-2010-2011, we just were not seeing much in the way of ipos at all. it is a positive sign in terms of capital markets functioning that we're seeing companies coming back. cheryl: we were showing names like another one -- looked at zynga. that stock is down 75%.

you can understand investors are wary but if you do a basket or a large scale basket of technology ipo group for the year, don't know how you would do that but that is the way to play it. >> you could do that. whether you could get an allocation i don't know. facebook is difficult but if you were able to buy in each of the ipos at the offering price you would be well ahead and part of the problem is we try to make differentiations a. there are clearly highly qualified ideas and companies that will do very well and companies that will do less well but let's also remember we have had a very difficult set of economic circumstances. the backdrop is going to be tough in october and a test by fire for the market and we have an election in process which seems to be a tossup. i make no comment about

preference because i like to keep my friends and we obviously have ben bernanke simulating the system but we have real uncertainty about the economy and jobs in the united states and overseas. cheryl: a couple tips for those who want to get in the water and they have bravery on their side. what makes a good idea attractive? what should we be looking for? >> exactly the same thing that makes a good stock attractive. you like to see a strong competitive position and barriers to entry and patents and trademarks and copyrights are a positive. having monthly recurring revenues or stickiness to the revenues is a real positive. being a leader in this space and having the financial metrics that go with that. for someone to say we are a leader and the margins are relatively poor doesn't suggest that that is consistent with a

high quality company. ipos are clearly an area where there are more winners than losers but there are losers. allowing an ipo to the season overtime is not a rush to buy the stock for the individual investor. you can buy any aftermarket if you are up 10% is not the end of the world. if you think it is a good long-term investment. fundamentals. when it is a really hot deal be careful because sometimes those deals are overprice. you might buy right and so right that is not the right entry. cheryl: i like that. fred james, vice chairman, thank you. closing bell going to ring in 17 minutes. orlando returns. he told us 5 buckets of concern and we love is out fit today but coming that next he has the play to get through them and make

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cheryl: nicole petallides is on the stock exchange. what are traders watching today? nicole: i have a trader year that we were talking about all kinds of things. earnings and trading levels. let's talk about alcoa. what have you heard so far for this dow component? >> they did what they said.

people are curious about the actual and earnings and want to know what they're saying about the future. concern over china and the fiscal quicksand what is going on in the states and is that going to be the mantra we hear going forward? nicole: a great question. yum brands came in and didn't give that -- china was looking good despite a tougher economy. we will see if that holds true. let's talk about trading levels when we talk about the s&p 500. traders look where you buy and sell. one are the key numbers. you look at the futures and not the real lesson be 500. >> at 1425 on the s&p 500 and the market is waiting to see where we pierce it and hold it and where the momentum plays and they kick in -- [talking over each other] >> move to the level of 1425

will become resistant on the way up and support on the way down. nicole: if you hold this level -- [talking over each other] >> and close above 1425 technically do that as positive and set up for tomorrow. the banks are coming dow fares day. j. p. morgan and wells fargo and people will be interested to see what -- if anything we need help from the financials and j. p. morgan and wells fargo are two king names people are watching. i like the bank and the bank will do better i should hope. nicole: any last thoughts you want to add to what you're seeing right here right now? >> investors are on hold and waiting for a thursday when we have the debate thursday. will be entertainment and thursday, friday. nicole: thank you so much for

joining us. cheryl: cu in ten minutes for the close of trading and give earnings season is expected to be dismal phil orlando says the glass is half full and investors should be prepared for a surprises. he is back with picks to get us to the earnings season. biggest sector you like? >> the issue is the concern in third quarter earnings are terrible but those concerns are overblown. the ratio of negative to positive -- hasn't been that bad. the expectation is earnings are down 3% or 4% for the first time in three or four years. we don't think you will be that bad. what we are looking at is sectors that have gotten hit but we think earnings are in good shape. sector 1 would be technology. a company like apple computer's down $100 over the course of the last three or four weeks. we think earnings are very strong. consumer discretionary. the housing area looks great.

cheryl: even with those stocks. [talking over each other] >> a multi-year bull run in housing. we are literally in the first year. cheryl: triple digits i want to point out. >> and going higher. the third area we agree with the prior guest. financials. wells fargo and j. p. morgan are two we like particularly. cheryl: you are not concerned about the inventory or loan levels at the banks. these are intertwined. >> do banks need to lend more money? absolutely but the healthy market index has tripled over the space of the last year. that is the most important indicator in terms of giving us a sense of confidence. mortgage rates are at or near record lows. inventories are at record lows. the affordability is at record highs. household formations are improving. all of the key drivers are there to look at a multi-year improvement in housing developments. cheryl: a guest was talking

about technology and even ipos. i would think anything in the cloud space or even chip companies or chip design companies might be places to look so maybe those are plays. >> they are screening investment and hardware and software and chips are not looking attractive but the key thing is because of a concern about the third quarter earnings a lot of quality technology companies are down pretty sharply over the last month or so. that somewhat is overdone relative to the long term growth prospects. if we are right that third quarter earnings are decent, then you have an opportunity to pick up quality companies at decent prices. cheryl: i remember when they were calling for $700 a share but that was ten years ago. great to have you on the show. closing bell is going to ring in six minutes. the forget to follow count down to the closing bell on twitter for the inside scoop everyday. when we get back we will tell

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units plunging since the economic downturn. the company said people are opting for ground delivery and steering clear of the more expensive express option. driving the stock up, fedex right behind me $90.13, up $4.55. the dow flirting with session lows. david and sandra have more with after the bell. david: i think will bring up a number of positives. this really speaks for itself. we will talk about the concern, also talking about it with sandra smith. sandra: thank you for having me. david: nicole petallides at the new york stock exchange keeping with the good news on a bad day that we have, yum brands. they did not pop, 8% jump, first loss of the lot about the china slowdown because they are crediting china with their

marks. nicole: that is right. you are thinking kfc, kentucky fried chicken, pizza hut, but you know it is a big revenue generator for yum brands and it looks good in china despite a tough economy, so that was music to the here is the lot of wall street folks. sandra: some say the reason we are at session lows is because they're worried about earnings session and a lot of gloomy forecast. however, two big retail names, costco and wal-mart moving higher today. nicole: that is right. wal-mart really stealing the show with an all-time high. one of the many reasons is they're doing same-day delivery service, also talking positively about the holiday season. two names looking very good. david: i loved fred smith and the federal express story, and all-american story at the height of the recession in the